Today on Moms on Mondays I am excited to have Trisha from Still Rad Clothing! I got to participate in a photo shoot of her brand (see it here) and have talked to her online a few times and she is just the sweetest. Her clothes are so cool and I hope to one day meet her in person when she moves to Arizona (get out here!). Check out her post and then go shop!
The name of my shop is Mombie Brand, which also encompasses our brand Still Rad Clothing. We can also be found on Instagram and Facebook. We sell mainly screen printed clothing for modern parents and kids.
My best friend and I used to always draw shirt designs as teens, and pretend to own our own clothing company. As I got married, and had 3 kids, I decided that I was bored with the clothing available in stores. I decided to start learning to screen print. I had a lot of fun designing and printing clothing for my kiddos, so I decided I really wanted to make a living at it, and that it would also allow me to have a more flexible schedule. We've been in business for 2 and a half years.
My background is actually in criminal investigation. I clearly decided to go a different route, but I always have it as a back up, because I still am very passionate about that type of work as well.
I have 3 children, all with their completely unique personalities. Minerva is my oldest, she is 7, she is sassy, strong-willed, has a fashion sense and a love for bunnies. She is also really into Goosebumps. Sadie Morgan is 5, she is sweet and very friendly, but sometimes shy. She loves cats and dogs. Finally, my youngest is Silas Benjamin, he is 3. He is super smart and picks up very easily on anything he learns. He loves learning, monster trucks, Pokemon, letters and numbers.
This company helps provide extra money for my family, and is actually helping us move across the country, which has been a long time dream of mine. For me, personally, it allows me to have a creative outlet, as well as a flexible schedule to be with my family.
In some way, I always kind of thought I would be running my own business and doing something creative, so I'm not surprised at where I am now. Currently, I'm the only one working on my company, but my best friend does help on her free time. She is a really great friend, and is very enthusiastic about my brand. I do my best to run my shop and squeeze it all in while my kids are at school. It doesn't always work out, so I end up spending night time hours to catch up on things I didn't get done during the day.
I love the relationships that I have built with both my customers, and other small brands. There is a wonderful network of parents and creative minds out there, and social media makes it easy to connect with them. I also get a lot of pride in knowing I built this business from the ground up. I like to believe that we are growing at a good rate, and cannot wait to see where we are a year from now. It's so exciting!
The most challenging part of this business would have to be the time management and task organization. I tend to try to start many projects at the same time, instead of starting and finishing one after another. Things can get chaotic fast, and I get overwhelmed easily.
In the future, I see us pursuing more wholesale accounts and getting our brand into more boutiques across the world. We kind of slacked with this because it was very overwhelming for one person, and the help of a friend here and there, to keep up with. I would also like to see our clothing being manufactured to our specifications.
Our Mombie Defined shirts are probably my favorite things I've created because they truly define motherhood. Any mother of small children can relate to them.
My advice to future mom-entrepreneurs? Don't give up. There will be times that you feel you can't do it anymore, but you need to keep going. It gets harder before it gets easier, but I assure you, you will learn to make everything work. Always remind yourself that you have so many things to be proud of. For instance, I take time each day to express the things I am grateful for. Doing this keeps up my positivity and will work for you too.
I have so many favorite shops I had to narrow it down to just four - Kinship Goods, Passive Juice Motel, Loved by Hannah and Eli and Weestructed. I couldn't leave out Weestructed because at least once a day I am using one of their products!
Check out Trisha's feature on BuzzFeed as well!
Thanks Trisha for being a part of this series, I loved having you! :)
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